United Nations
General Assembly
A/HRC/13/39/Add.3
Distr.: General
16 December 2009
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Thirteenth session
Agenda item 3
Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic,
social and cultural rights, including the right to development
Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred
Nowak
Mission to Kazakhstan*
Summary
The Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment, Manfred Nowak, undertook a visit to Kazakhstan from 5 to 13 May 2009.
The Special Rapporteur expresses his appreciation to the Government for the
invitation which he interprets as a sign that the country is sincerely interested in an
objective assessment of the situation. He notes that, since independence in 1991,
Kazakhstan has acceded to numerous international human rights instruments, which
illustrates its commitment to reforming the legal framework and policies. At the same time,
he noticed that considerable efforts had been made to prepare the various detention
facilities and the detainees for his inspections, which contradicts the very idea of
independent fact-finding and unannounced visits. It also makes the task of assessing
conditions of detention and torture objectively more difficult.
Whereas the physical conditions and food supply in the prison colonies seem to
have been brought into line with international minimum standards in recent years, one of
the key requirements of international human rights law — that penitentiary systems put
rehabilitation and reintegration rather than the punishment of the individual offender at
their core — has not been achieved; the restrictions on contact with the outside world
provided by law contradict that very principle. Another major issue of concern is the fact
that the hierarchy among prisoners appears to lead to discriminatory practices and, in some
* The summary of the present report is circulated in all official languages. The report itself, contained
in the annex to the summary, is circulated in the language of submission and in Russian. The
appendix to the report is circulated as received.
GE.09-17580 (E)
140110